


Tender

by stateofintegrity



Category: MASH (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:42:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24440779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stateofintegrity/pseuds/stateofintegrity
Summary: Klinger finds various ways to say what Charles already knows... but doesn’t mind hearing a second time.
Relationships: Maxwell Klinger/Charles Emerson Winchester III
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Tender

Charles Emerson Winchester III could never have predicted that the lover he would choose to warm his bed would be a Lebanese Corporal from Toledo with a collection of lacy underwear that made the Major sweat every time he remembered its existence. Still less could he have imagined a world in which his sex life included laughter. 

“Klinger, as much as I treasure your regard, you do not need to thank me for making you feel good. I not only wish to do so - as often as possible - I consider it both my charge to execute and my privilege. In short, stop putting money in my, ah, shorts!” 

The laughter comes when Klinger looks him square in the face and says, “It was your money to begin with, Major. I can’t afford quality like you on a Corporal’s salary!” 

Charles  _ howls _ . Not only has he had the great good sense to bring Klinger into his arms, he has chosen someone that gets to him so effectively that he has not even noticed that he is being robbed! Through laughter he says, “Henceforth, Corporal, you may find yourself, ah, being seen to  _ after _ me. Maybe that will give me a fighting chance at keeping my money in my wallet.” (A good orgasm does typically make his eyes close and it seems that taking his eyes  _ off  _ of Klinger is not just a pity - it’s a risk). 

Klinger blinds him with the kind of eager smile that would have him unzipping his pants if he wasn’t already naked. “Fine by me.” His dancing eyes expand on this, reminding Charles how wide those eyes get when they watch him come, held that way as if Klinger fears missing even a second - even if it’s their second round of the night. 

The Major pulls him into his arms. It should be old by now - the warm and living feel of him that makes laughter brim in him like light - but Klinger’s infectiousness is seemingly inexhaustible; if Charles buries his face in that dark hair it may as well be their first time all over again. 

“Much as your light-fingered flattery pleases me, you could just tell me how I make you feel.” He chuckles when he thinks that when Barrett Browning “counted the ways” she loved, she never thought of using tens and twenties! 

Normally shameless, Klinger drops his eyes and says quietly, “I don’t know the right words, Major.” He looks back up. “I didn’t go to school like you.” 

It’s touching, sweet, and a little silly that he can believe that he requires an education to express the sentiments Charles can read in his skin and his smile, and Charles kisses his nose to express this. “The only words I could ever desire are  _ yours,  _ Max, because the only person I could ever desire is you.” 

This wins him a deeper kiss which inspires more play, and Klinger does stop leaving him (his) money as a symbol of a really good night (or morning, or afternoon…). Charles forgets this conversation entirely until he finds the first note. 

“Major,” (it reads, because Klinger has basically turned his rank into an endearment [though he does sometimes  _ really  _ enjoy the disparity when Charles gives him an intimate “order,” and he obeys with a dispatch that the army has never managed to inspire]). 

“You said you wanted me to say how you make me feel. I’ll try, but you mean a lot, so maybe you can hear me this way? I want you to know, it’s not just the way you touch me. Don’t stop, but don’t think that’s all that gets me. It’s you and it was the minute you walked onto the base. It’s your voice and your eyes and the way you fight for the hurt soldiers they bring you. It’s your mind and your hand when it rests on my shoulder. It’s knowing that no matter what happens in OR or the war, I get to be beside you. How’s that for words, Major?”

He reads the note again and smiles. “That’ll serve, Max,” he says and thinks about how he can use his voice and his eyes and his hands to win more words from his intimate correspondent.

These missives become the new legal tender of their more tender moments and he treasures each one, hiding them in between the pages of a novel because this is the one place his tentmates won’t look and he doesn’t want to share this. By war’s end, he’s expanded his library just to expand this hiding place that sits in plain sight, and if Pierce or Hunnicutt notice him smiling dreamily away at the shelf of classics, they never say.

End! 


End file.
